Gorsuch grilled in Senate confirmation hearing

The plans of the Democrat senator and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to be tough on Neil Gorsuch flew back in her own face during Tuesday's Senate confirmation hearings for President Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

If Democrats push to hold up the nomination, Republicans will effectively need 60 votes to confirm the 49-year-old conservative appeals judge, who parried Democratic attacks in Senate confirmation hearings this week. Democrats Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York Sherrod Brown of OH and Elizabeth Warren of MA, among others, have already said they will oppose Gorsuch, according to the AP.

Asked specifically about Roe v. Wade by Sen.

More than a year after Antonin Scalia's death left a vacancy on the Supreme Court, the Senate Judiciary Committee is finally ready to consider a candidate to replace him.

Those included re-instituting torture techniques for terror suspects, banning Muslims from entering the United States, and nominating judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade, a 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a woman's right to abortion. "It has been reaffirmed, the reliance interests considerations are important there, and all the other factors that go into analyzing precedent have to be considered", he said.

In an exchange with Sen. Graham said he was afraid the president would pick "somebody on TV", but that he "did a good job picking Judge Gorsuch".

"Specifically tell us whether you'd have any trouble ruling against the President who appointed you", Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads the Judiciary Committee, instructed him. One of the precedents on which the three-judge Circuit panel relied was a 2008 opinion written by Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch, who was not part of the later three-judge panel.

Gorsuch's ruling had determined that a school district was not in violation of the federal Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) if they provided an education that "must merely be 'more than de minimis'".

He was later asked directly if he was a surrogate for President Trump and replied: "No".

"I have nothing but admiration for those lawyers", Gorsuch responded. Dems have already said that this is a possibility, and Republicans only command a narrow 52/48 majority in the Senate.

Democrats hope to stall Gorsuch's approval, possibly with a filibuster. Expect the judge to portray himself as a dispassionate legal scholar who, like Scalia, believes in interpreting the law as it was written. I would tell you, Sen.